Decolonizing the Fence at Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes

This panel discussion and architect’s walk through of the site was held during Agave Festival Marfa on June 3, 2023.

Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes (Cemetery of the Lipan Neighborhood) is a sacred site to the Lipan Apache Tribe located in Presidio, Texas. This panel discussion—co-presented by Big Bend Conservation Alliance and Ballroom Marfa—discussed the history of the site and the protection project currently underway.

Panelists included architects from MASS Design Group—Joseph Kunkel and Mayrah Udvardi—and Indigenous voices of the Big Bend—Christina Hernandez, Xoxi Nayapiltzin, and Oscar Rodriguez. Annie Rosenthal of Marfa Public Radio will moderated the discussion.

The discussion, and accompanying architect’s walk through of the site, is co-presented by Big Bend Conservation Alliance and Ballroom Marfa with support from Humanities Texas, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and Terra Foundation for American Art.

Project Background

Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes (Cemetery of the Lipan Neighborhood) is a sacred site to the Lipan Apache Tribe located in Presidio, Texas. The site became the final resting place of Lipan who settled in the immediate vicinity beginning in the 1790s. Through the 1960s, the burial mound lay undisturbed with the graves clearly marked by individual cairn barrows, but by the 1970s residential encroachment and urbanization desecrated the site. 

Recently, Big Bend Conservation Alliance partnered with the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas to commission MASS Design Group—an award-winning non-profit architecture and design firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity—to create a structure that would protect this landmark. The resulting design, which is currently under construction, works to instill acknowledgment of and respect for Indigenous presence in the Chihuahuan Desert by creating a place-specific design language that focuses on sacredness, gathering, and landback.

The project to protect Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes has been supported by the many individuals who contributed to “Protect the Camposanto” campaign on GoFundMe, and through grants awarded by American Electric Power Foundation, Amerigroup, Cibolo Creek Ranch, City of Presidio, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, Horizon Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Presidio Municipal Development District, Texas Historical Foundation, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Still Water Foundation, and Summerlee Foundation. 

First Image: Rendering of the MASS Design Group’s design for Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes. Image courtesy MASS Design Group.